BITCOIN
Bitcoin is a cryptocurrency invented in 2008 by an unknown person or group of people using the name Satoshi Nakamoto and started in 2009. It is a decentralized digital currency without a single administrator that can be sent from user to user on the peer-to-peer bitcoin network without the need for intermediaries. Transactions are verified by network nodes through cryptography and recorded in a public distributed ledger called a blockchain. Bitcoins are created as a reward for a process known as mining. They can be exchanged for other currencies, products, and services. There were 2.9 to 5.8 million unique users using a cryptocurrency wallet, most of them using bitcoin. In 2011, the price started at $0.30 per bitcoin, growing to $5.27 for the year. The price rose to $31.50 on 8 June. Within a month the price fell to $11.00. The next month it fell to $7.80, and in another month to $4.77 in 2014, prices started at $770 and fell to $314 for the year in 2015, prices started at $314 and rose to $434 for the year. In 2016, prices rose and climbed up to $998 by 1 January 2017.
Throughout the rest of the first half of 2018,
bitcoin's price fluctuated between $11,480 and $5,848. On 1 July 2018,
bitcoin's price was $6,343. The price on 1 January 2019 was $3,747,
down 72% for 2018 and down 81% since the all-time high. During the week
of 11 March 2020 as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic cryptocurrency
exchange Kraken experienced an 83% increase in the amount of account
signups over the week of bitcoin's price collapse, a result of buyers looking
to capitalize on the low price.